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For a long time now my sister and I have wanted to expand The Pig and the Peacock and add new products to our line. However, between our real jobs, keeping up with wholesale orders and organizing charity events with Etsy Dallas, it leaves us little time to make anything new.

We have been wanting to launch a new item to our shop called DejaVino Recycled Wine Bottle Candles. We make DejaVino candles by upcycling wine bottles. First we hand cut the wine bottles, then sand them down by hand too. We then etch quotes or images into the bottles using etching creme before hand-pouring them with 100% soy wax.

Prototypes of our DejaVino Recycled Wine Bottle Candles. Production candles will be sandblasted for a more impactful etch

We got the idea to make these candles by watching the bartenders at my boyfriends restaurant (Cafe Izmir) toss dozens of wine bottles in the trash every night. We just thought that there had to be something we could do to give those bottle new life, hence the name DejaVino. We have actually now provided Cafe Izmir with custom DejaVino candles with their logo etched on to them!

Currently what stands in our way of making this new line of candles is two things:

Scalability of soap making production.

Our soaps are made in small batches which make it time consuming to produce large quantities to keep up with orders

Scalability of DejaVino production.

As mentioned above every step of making DejaVino candles is done by hand. While they will still be 100% handmade, there is a big difference between hand sanding, and utilizing a belt sander. There is also a big difference in time and quality in using etching creme vs using a sandblaster.

How will this Fund on Etsy project help us?

Scalability of soap making production.

We will be able to have custom soap molds made that are 100% larger than the current ones we have. Doubling our capacity will give us back valuable time to create new items like the DejaVino candles.

Scalability of DejaVino production.

Since our arm feels like it is going to fall off after sanding 5 bottles, it is really important to get some tools. Roughly half of the funds raised will go towards a membership to Dallas Makerspace. There they have all the tools we need to streamline production of DejaVino candles, such as belt sanders and sandblasting cabinets.

The sandblasting cabinet is key to our production as it creates a much sharper, cleaner, deeper etch in the bottles that can not be achieved with the etching creme. It is also a lot faster too, which means we can etch more on any given day.

We are really excited about this opportunity to grow and hope that you will help support us by backing this project! We are also so honored that Etsy has chosen us to be one of the shops to be part of their Fund on Etsy launch!